Stage 1 — Measure and brief
An on-site visit: the room measured, services located, the switchboard looked at, and your list recorded — who cooks, what lives on the bench, what drives you mad about the current kitchen. Photos of kitchens you like are genuinely useful here.
Allow: one visit.
Stage 2 — Drawings and selections
A measured plan, a proposed plan, elevations and a cabinet schedule. Alongside that, the selections: door finish, benchtop, splashback, handles, sink, tapware and appliances. Lighting and power points are marked on the plan at this stage, because moving them later is expensive.
Allow: one to three weeks, mostly dependent on how fast decisions get made. See layout and design.
Stage 3 — Itemised written quote
Cabinetry, benchtop, splashback, plumbing, electrical, gas, appliance installation, patching, painting and making good each on their own line. Under NSW home building law the maximum deposit is 10 per cent, and progress payments follow completed stages. Guide bands and what moves them are on the cost page.
Stage 4 — Approvals, where they apply
In a house, replacing a kitchen without structural change is generally exempt development in NSW. Removing a load-bearing wall is not. In a unit, the owners corporation generally has to approve the work first, and that timeline depends on committee meeting dates — start it early. See apartment and strata kitchens.
Stage 5 — Manufacture
Cabinetry is built off site while you are still cooking in the old kitchen. Two-pack polyurethane doors take longest because they are sprayed and cured.
Allow: three to five weeks.
Stage 6 — Strip-out
Protection down through the house, the old kitchen removed, services capped and made safe, waste taken away. In homes built or renovated before about 1990, anything suspect has already been tested; where asbestos is present, removal is carried out by a separately licensed removalist before anything else proceeds.
Allow: one to two days.
Stage 7 — Rough-in and repairs
Plumbing, gas and electrical moved to the plan. Wall changes framed or beamed. Patching, and flooring repaired or replaced where the old kitchen sat.
Allow: two to four days.
Stage 8 — Cabinet installation
Carcasses levelled and scribed to the walls, doors and drawers hung and adjusted, end panels and fillers fitted. This is the day the room starts looking like a kitchen.
Allow: one to three days.
Stage 9 — Benchtop template and installation
The benchtop is measured off the installed cabinets, then fabricated and returned. This is the longest wait inside the on-site period and there is no way to compress it — templating before the cabinets are in produces a top that does not fit.
Allow: three to ten working days between template and installation, depending on the material.
Stage 10 — Splashback, appliances and tapware
Splashback installed, cooktop and rangehood fitted, oven and dishwasher connected, sink and tapware plumbed. Gas and electrical connections are certified by the licensed trades who make them.
Allow: two to four days.
Stage 11 — Paint, make good and handover
Patching sanded and painted, silicone lines run, hardware given a final adjustment, and a clean. Then a walk-through: how the hardware adjusts, what the benchtop does and does not tolerate, how to clean the rangehood filter, and the appliance paperwork.
Allow: one to two days.
What actually keeps a job on time
- Decide selections in one or two sittings rather than over six weeks.
- Buy appliances early and have them on site before install day.
- Get strata approval started before selections, not after.
- Say yes or no to variations quickly, in writing.
- Set up the temporary kitchen properly on the first day.
Call 02 4404 0245 or send your kitchen details through.
Questions people ask before they commit
How long does the whole thing take?
Commonly six to ten weeks from the first measure to handover, of which two to four weeks are on site. Design and selections take one to three weeks depending on how quickly decisions are made, and cabinetry manufacture takes three to five weeks after that.
How long are we without a kitchen?
Usually two to four weeks. The old kitchen stays in use right up until strip-out, because cabinetry is made off site first. The gap between the benchtop template and its installation is the part where a temporary setup matters most.
What do people use in the meantime?
A temporary bench in another room with the kettle, microwave, air fryer and rice cooker, the fridge relocated to a hallway or garage, and the laundry tub for washing up. Setting that up deliberately on day one makes the fortnight far easier.
What is the most common cause of delay?
Late decisions on selections, and appliances that arrive after install day. Both are avoidable. Structural surprises and hazardous materials found at strip-out are the unavoidable ones, and they get priced as written variations before work continues.